Dear WordPress,

Has it really been 10 years? It seems just yesterday we were playing around on my blog, and the blogs of a few high school friends. Two of those friends are married, one isn’t anymore, two are still figuring things out, and one has passed away.

You were cute before you became beautiful. Wearing black and white, afraid of color, trying to be so unassuming. I know you got jealous when I wore those Blogger t-shirts. They were the cool kids at SxSW and I thought maybe you could grow up to be like them.

You wouldn’t have shirts of your own for a few more years. We didn’t know what we were doing when we made them and the logo printed ginormous. People called them the Superman shirt and made fun of them. But, oh, that logo — the curves fit you so well.

You showed the world you were growing up, and how much you cared about design and typography and other platonic ideals. You knew that open source didn’t have to be homely. I stretched myself too thin trying to get you there, and I did a stupid thing to pay for it. I hurt you, but instead of casting me away you held me closer, supported me, gave me another chance. I will never forget that. Akismet made me feel less guilty. I wouldn’t change anything, because the mistake made me understand how important it is to fly straight and take your time.

You’re so beautiful… I’m continually amazed and delighted by how you’ve grown. Your awkward years are behind you. Best of all, through it all, you’ve stuck with the principles that got you started in the first place. You’re always changing but that never changes. You’re unafraid to try new things that may seem wacky or unpopular at first.

I see you all over the world now, glowing from screens, bringing people together at meetups and WordCamps — you’re at your best when you do that. You’re my muse; you inspire me, and I’ve seen you inspire others. You become a part of their life and they become a part of yours. I hope we grow old together.

All I can say is thank you, Matt. The lifestyle I get to enjoy now is completely contingent on my decision to leave my day job and pursue a freelance career with WordPress. 3 lives here in Chicago definitely changed by what you did. And I’m sure there’s 1000x these kind of stories.

Congrats on 10 years. So much has changed over the last decade but one thing is for sure. WordPress is only getting better and stronger. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years have in store. Also, what a beautiful piece. Cheers!

Thanks Mr WordPress. Thanks Matt and MIke. And Thank you to all the developers, wirters and readers all over the world. You all together make my life a little better everyday. From my old boring life with a job I dislike to a journey that begins everyday, which challenges my capacity of creating new a better ways of communicating and help others

Congrats on 10th Anniversary … Well, here in Lahore-Pakistan we’ve celebrated this anniversary … http://www.meetup.com/WordPress/Lahore-PK/948432/
Well, are you guys going to create any photo upload stream where we will be sharing event pictures ???

Lovely post Matt. I like millions of others am extremely grateful today for your vision and leadership in building WordPress into what it is today. I look forward to posting a comment again here in another 10 years thanking you again

thank you so much, you changed the world. not less. It is still very easy to share ideas with the whole world and it is still easy to read, what people with the same interest think. even if they are 10.000 km away. go on!

Congratulations Matt! I’m looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond. Such exciting things in the blogging world is happening all the time and so many wonderful blogs launching every day because of WordPress.

Dude, that 4th paragraph speaks so hugely about how far you have come and one of the reasons why WordPress is as successful as it is today. That saga left a really sour taste in my mouth for a long time, but maybe it was a fork in the karma-road where you actually chose wisely and have now reaped the rewards.

Celebrate with pride what you and the community have created, people all around the world now make a living off some of the code that you wrote when you were a teenager (if there’s any of that code still left), along with Michel V and Mike L.

I’ve been a happy coat-tail rider since the .76 days, looking forward to seeing this little 10-year-old mature further.

Thanks a MILLION! Thanks to WordPress a single mom can make a living, have fun, and start a business : ) What’s funny is that 10 years ago I graduated from high school, wish I would have found WordPress then, I would be a pro by now! Well the last 3 years have been good and I couldn’t be happier.

WordPress inspires me, makes me grow, and has given me the freedom to work for myself but not by myself. I love the community, and how generous people are in giving help. Thank you soooooo much! +1 on 100 more years : )

Thanks for the platform that allowed me to be independent and have my blog on my own server instead of depending on corporations and for making it open source so that if anything happens to automattic, WordPress won’t die.

WordPress is (still) so wonderful. I walked a path 6-7 plus years ago, where I was to choose a CMS for the company where I work. WordPress immediate attracted me, because it was simple and easy to install, setup and use. And it still is. It has proved that simplicity and aestetics wins when it competes against too many features and functionality and in the end more user unfriendly complexity.

And here many years later I’m the humble coordinator of WordPress in Denmark. I have arranged a few WordCamps and have met a lot of fine people. And last night I celebrated WordPress with some of those people.

Congratulations, Matt! You’ve changed so many lives for the better, mine included. Last year, I raved about the Wonders of WordPress at WordCamp, and I’m doing it again in June. You’ve given us all a gorgeous gift. Thank you.

Will never forget that first time we met in South Africa, good times. Thank you for all the inspiration, hard work, and helping to give people a voice and enable stories to be shared all over the world. Chris

With WP, I am a part of something free and beautiful. I make friends who don’t know me, but help me all the time; trust folks whom I’ve never met; focus on customers’ happiness a lot more than on browsers, and have a feeling of accomplishment because I belong to most transparent and generous community ever. Thank you, Matt, and thank you all who work on development of open culture and participatory journalism.

Love this.
When I met you at Summit basecamp, I didn’t even know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
These days I’m presenting at WordPress meetups so, needless to say, a lot has changed. =)

Congratulations on your phenomenal success and thank you for all of your contributions.

– Mindie

P.S. I am even dragging Sean (Stephenson) to WordPress meetups now so someday he will become WordPress rockstar, too. 😉

Wow…I’ve missed 2003 when it first came out. Where was I? Oh yeah…going back to school to get another degree in Nursing. But instead got in the Respiratory Therapy program…got my more schooling. I even got a license in ARF to start a new business but I dropped them all and now I’m back online again. Happy 10th Birthday WordPress!!! I love how you make things so EASY for us…designers, writers, and entrepreneurs.